Fat Vaccine Coming In 10 Years?
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in ScienceWe always hear these stories. A vaccine that will do this or that in ten years. But then ten years never come. Forgive me if I’m extremely skeptical of the latest “great fat hope.”
Infection by certain pathogens triggers rapid increases in fatty tissue in animals, Nikhil Dhurnadha told the annual meeting of NAASO, the Obesity Society, in this western Canadian city.At the same time, the discovery that many more obese people than normal-weight people have been exposed to a certain virus suggests a link between obesity and viral infection.
“Not all obesity can be explained by infection,” said Dhurandhar, of the Pennington Biomedial Research Center at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. “Infections can be one of the causes.”
Some other causes for obesity?
Researchers are reporting at the conference on other fat triggers that include a genetic tendency to store fat among groups whose ancestors survived famines, medications such as treatments for psychotic mental disorders, toxins in the environment like organochlorines, and infectious agents like bacteria, viruses and prions.
Again, I’m skeptical, but for everybody’s sake I hope they blow my skepticism out of the water with a terrific vaccine in the coming years. Oh, and definitely read the entire article. It details the doctor’s research and how he discovered this supposed link between infection and obesity.
(HT: Drudge Report)
This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 19th, 2005 and is filed under Science. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
October 19th, 2005 at 11:20 am
Let’s not forget the main cause of obesity…
The “Michael Moore” diet (cheetos and beer)
October 19th, 2005 at 11:28 am
Ahh ford, never miss a chance to slam the left, eh?
October 19th, 2005 at 4:42 pm
Sweet. Anyone want to buy my elliptical?